1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system adapted to be able to execute first and second operations, a printing apparatus, and a job processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a POD (Print On Demand) printing system using an electrophotographic or inkjet printing apparatus has been proposed (see, e.g., patent reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310746, and patent reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310747).
In the POD environment, a printing apparatus receives PDL data or PDF file data to be printed from an external apparatus, and rasterizes the data into a bitmap image (raster image data) to be printed on the basis of the result of analyzing the data. The printer engine prints the rasterized bitmap image. In printing, the printer engine cannot continuously operate without stop depending on the printing environment, failing to efficiently process a plurality of jobs at high productivity.
For example, even when the printing apparatus can execute an operation mode in which rasterization processing and print processing by the printer engine are parallel-performed, print processing waits for data requiring a long rasterization time, and the printer engine stops. To the contrary, even when the printing apparatus can execute an operation mode in which print processing by the printer engine starts after the end of all rasterization processing, printing of many pages takes a long time until all pages are printed.